In the 2019 election, inequality was a major campaign theme. In the run up to polling day, the then Labor leader Bill Shorten declared inequality killed hope and created a fault line in politics by fostering a “sense of powerlessness that drives people away from the political mainstream, and down the low road of blaming minorities, and promising to turn back the clock”.
Back then, Labor promised to pursue measures like the abolition of franking credits – characterised by Shorten as “unsustainable largesse for high-income earners” – and curbs to negative gearing. These policies raised the revenue underpinning Labor’s then antidote – projected increases in social spending in areas like health and education.
But after voters rejected that agenda in 2019, Anthony Albanese overhauled both the policy and the rhetoric. Labor continues to argue government is a positive force in the lives of Australians, but now, Albanese speaks of a future where “no one is held back and no one is left behind”.
The substantive focus may have shifted since 2019, and the rhetoric may have softened, but the problem of inequality persists.
A report released in March from the Australian Council of Social Service and the University of New South Wales points out that government payments distributed during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic halved poverty and significantly reduced income inequality in this country.
But that trend was reversed when the support ended. The Morrison government did agree to a permanent $50 increase in the fortnightly jobseeker payment once the coronavirus supplement ended – but that was well below what social services groups had championed. Labor also confirmed in April it had dropped plans for a review of the rate.
Data from Guardian Australia’s election Seat Explorer maps the extreme inequality across Australia. It shows the most advantaged electorates have median incomes almost double the most disadvantaged. In some electorates, 20% of households spend more than 30% of their incomes on rent.
The Seat Explorer allows you to dive deep on demographic, health, wealth and inequality data. Unfortunately, the best data available on many of these dimensions is from the 2016 census. The data from the 2021 census has not yet been released and so Guardian Australia partnered with academics from Griffith University to adjust the 2016 census data for the latest electoral boundaries.
Analysing the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) shows that the Labor-held electorate of Spence, in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, and Mallee, an electorate held by the Nationals in western Victoria, are the electorates with the highest percentage of disadvantaged households.
Electorates that have a higher proportion of advantaged areas are traditional Liberal party strongholds, like Berowra and Bradfield in greater Sydney. The Melbourne electorates of Kooyong and Goldstein – blue ribbon territories under challenge from “teal” independents in 2022 – also make the cut.
IRSAD takes into account factors such as income, education, unemployment, rent and mortgage, and family size. A high score indicates a relative lack of disadvantage and greater advantage.
We can further explore the factors that make up the inequality index by diving deeper into two electorates – Goldstein in suburban Melbourne and Lingiari in the Northern Territory.
Eighty-nine per cent of Goldstein is in the most advantaged three deciles (top 30%) of the IRSAD index, while just 21% of Lingiari residents are in the most advantaged areas, with 43% of Lingiari residents living in the most disadvantaged areas.
Lingiari covers most of the NT. The seat is Labor-held, but the retirement of the ALP veteran Warren Snowdon has put the marginal electorate in play. Lingiari has one of the highest proportions of renters, households needing more bedrooms (a measure of housing suitability) and homelessness of any electorate. The median personal weekly income range is $650-$799 compared to $871 for the Northern Territory and $662 nationally.
The relatively more advantaged seat of Goldstein has some of the lowest percentage of households that are renters, in mortgage and rental stress (where more than 30% of incomes are spent on repayments and rent) and need more bedrooms of any electorate.
The median personal weekly income in Goldstein is $800-$999, which is significantly higher than Lingiari and Victoria ($644). The highest earning electorates in the country are Wentworth and North Sydney, both in greater Sydney, with a median income range of $1,250-$1,499. Spence, which has the highest share of disadvantaged areas, is one of the 26 electorates with a median income range of $500-$649 – the lowest.
Seven per cent of Lingiari’s population has a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education. In Goldstein, it is 19% and the national average was 22%. The Queensland electorate of Groom is right in the middle, at 9%. Electorates in Sydney and Melbourne rank the highest on this score, at 24%.
